Downfall
by DevynQ
Summary: Just one moment in a series of terrifying episodes where Carrie loses control of her telekinetic powers as a young girl. She doesn't know what she's capable of yet, or why things seem to float into the air when her emotions overwhelm her, but what she does know is that this odd gift frightens her mother to the point of collapsing - and that's incentive enough to keep using it.


It's a late morning in April, the sky darkening with the approach of storm clouds, and the staff of the Northern Stars Aquarium readies itself for yet another busy day. Multiple school buses pull up to the front entrance, their overused wheels squealing to an unhurried stop. The doors creak open, and kids file down the stairs, out into the fresh air. One sniff and even the youngest of the schoolchildren should have no trouble smelling the anticipated rainstorm. Everything – from the recently cut grass to the rows of neatly trimmed sunflowers – has a distinct, dewy scent.

_Good thing we'll be inside for most of the day_, Carrie White thinks, casting a worried glace at the pitch-black sky. She shivers uncontrollably at the sight, a dreadful sense of foreboding overcoming her. Lately she's been feeling this way more and more often, and it scares her terribly. Carrie's momma has started to believe that a demon is in the process of possessing her, and it has taken every ounce of persuasion little Carrie owns to assure her that it's just a slight cold.

Needless to say, she is immensely glad to be out of her mother's sight for a day. No more beatings, no more hiding, no more pleas for mercy. The thought of freedom – if only for a short amount of time – makes Carrie nearly giddy. She can eat what she wants, talk how she likes, and act out whenever she feels like it! Freedom! Her smile is so large it nearly envelopes her whole face.

"Isn't this wonderful?" Tina Blake squeals, suddenly appearing beside her. The girl's crystal blue eyes are as large as saucers, and her hands are clasped tightly together in what Carrie can only assume to be awe.

"I bet they have sharks in there," Francie Cornelly whispers, also looking stricken with admiration for the colossal building with shiny windows and full-color posters advertising the "dolphin show of a lifetime".

"Well, of _course_ they do, Francie Pantsy," snickers a hard, contemptuous voice. The three girls turn around to see Chris Hargensen flouncing up beside them, her nose lifted in a characteristically superior manner. "This _is_ the aquarium, after all. What else would you expect to find here?"

Francie swiftly hides behind her curtain of brown hair in shame whilst Tina glares at the new arrival. Carrie isn't entirely sure whether she's included in this drama, but her curiosity gets the better of her, and she decides to stick close to the girls. Eavesdropping from ahead, she pretends to goggle at the large statues of exotic fish that sit near the main entrance.

"There's no need to be so rude, Chrisy," Tina barks, purposefully using the hated nickname to incite a reaction out of the class bully. Only God knows why she would do such a thing, but Carrie isn't brave enough to voice these thoughts aloud.

Chris merely raises a sardonic eyebrow. "I wouldn't have to be so rude, _Tina_ _Hyena_," she spits, "if you all weren't so _stupid_."

Despite herself, Tina blushes. Everyone in Miss Gardena's second grade class knows that little Tina Blake's laugh sounds more hyena than human, and this is an embarrassment she's had to live with for years. The pure absurdity of her laugh has made her more self-conscious than anyone else her age, and for Chris to bring that up now is wrong on so many levels. Carrie feels really bad for Tina, but again, she doesn't dare say anything to draw attention to herself. Instead, she hastily brushes back her wild hair and smoothes down her scratchy white dress before following their teacher to the first section of the aquarium.

Miss Gardena's class traverses through the jellyfish, dolphin, and local fish exhibits before they finally get to the most anticipated event of the day – the new shark emporium. It stretches down one entire wall, floor-to-ceiling glass that's thicker than a large pile of wood, allowing the visitors an uninhibited view of the dangerous creatures peering at them from the other side.

There are sporadic shouts – "Awesome! That's _so_ cool! Look how large they are!" – as Carrie's class runs in a wave of eager kids over to the exhibit. They press their noses against the cool glass, eyes wide and staring. _Oohs_ and _aahs_ travel around the room, and more than one girl squeals with a mixture of delight and fear. Miss Gardena warns them they only have twenty minutes until they must move on, and she kindly recommends they make the most of it.

"Wow, this is unbelievable!" Francie exclaims, hands pressed against the glass. She catches sight of a particularly large shark and proceeds to follow it down the length of the wall. The imprints of her hands look foggy against the glacial temperature of the glass.

Although Carrie remains as quiet as ever, she silently agrees with Francie. The sharks are all angry-looking, and even the smallest one surpasses the height of an average-sized adult. Their white teeth glisten menacingly; their smiles appear just as forbidding and yet another shiver runs through Carrie. It's intimidating being in the presence of so much raw power and aggression. She sighs, wishing she could be a shark, or at least as deadly as one.

As she glances quickly around the room to see the rest of her classmates' reactions, she recognizes – albeit vaguely – the expression on their wide-eyed faces. They seem stunned, almost…petrified. Carrie's seen that look before, though only a number of times and only on one particular face.

Her mother's.

Whenever her mother happened to witness another one of Carrie's "devil fits," she would freeze, and that expression of pure shock would slowly sweep across her face. Shock and…fear. It would only stay for a minute or two, just long enough for her momma to gather herself, and then Carrie would be knocked upside the head and forced to pray on her knees for hours on end.

Carrie had always hated those days.  
"What a good-for-nothing loser," Chris mutters. The girl has suddenly appeared about five feet to her left, and Carrie blinks back her surprise and keeps the majority of her focus on the giant tank.

A sigh. "C'mon, Chris, she's just having fun."

Out of the corner of her eye, Carrie catches a glimpse of blonde hair and pale skin. _Sue Snell_, she realizes, her brows creasing. _What's a nice girl like her doing with a bully like Chris Hargensen_?

"Yeah, well, she's making herself look like an idiot. How old are we again?" she asks rhetorically, scoffing.

"We're eight, Chris," Sue says, earning a fierce glare from the girl beside her, "which means we're still kids, so we're allowed to have some fun."

Chris rolls her eyes, and in doing so, catches Carrie staring at them. Carrie immediately realizes her mistake, but there's nothing that can be done at this point. She knows that all too well from past experiences. Chris has never been one to avoid confrontations.

"Excuse _you_," Chris jeers loudly. "What the hell are you looking at, freak?"

Carrie, short of breath, blurts out the only thing that comes to mind: "Nothing much."

Sue reaches out a desperate hand to keep Chris where she is, but the attempt to console her is pointless. Nothing can hold Chris Hargensen back when she's spoiling for a fight – and a nasty one at that.

"_What_ did you say?" she growls, her shoulders hunching and her head moving down to complete a strangely familiar aggressive stance. Carrie only notices this because she's done it herself so many times when faced with the wrath of her mother.

"I –" she stutters, unable to keep her body from trembling violently. Her gaze quickly sweeps the suddenly overcrowded room, but she can't for the life of her locate Miss Gardena. There are too many faces, too many smells and clothes and voices, that they all start to blend together into one huge, disjointed mass.

"Speak up, _Hairy Carrie_," Chris snarls, flicking a piece of her frizzy brown hair. Carrie jerks away, too caught up in her search for their teacher to notice how close the bully has come. She gasps as her foot collides with the end of a bench, and she stumbles. Managing to right herself at the very last second, Carrie puts a hand to her forehead. She lurches back a few feet when she sees Chris reach out a hand for her, and as she once again steadies herself, she notices that her hand is now covered in sweat.

"You're pathetic, you know that?" Chris is blowing air out of her nose like an enraged bull, and Sue looks on frightfully from a safe distance. "Every time I look at you, I want to vomit. Hairy Carrie is a geek, Hairy Carrie is a _freak_!" she taunts, the last part coming out as a malicious shout.

Carrie gulps, feeling something strange within her surge and boil. It's an angry sort of sensation, one that she won't be able to contain for long. One that she somehow recognizes.

"Why are you even _here_?" Chris continues, stepping towards her menacingly. "Doesn't your crackhead momma want to pray with you? Don't you have to kneel in front of some demented-looking cross and tell it your sins? Oh, I'm sure you have plenty of them," she cackles, shoving Carrie without warning. "For starters, your ugliness is downright disgraceful!"

And then, from behind the cowering girl and the furious bully, behind the confused onlooker and the small crowd of students that has assembled to witness Carrie's demise, there comes a curious sound, one completely unexpected in light of these circumstances.

A laugh flies out of Tina Blake's mouth, and she quickly presses a hand over her mouth to smother it.

But the damage is done. Her hyena laughter spreads like a contagion, flitting from a group of greasy boys to bright-eyed Francie to a bewildered janitor that just happens to be mopping up a spilled drink nearby. The laughter rolls over Carrie in waves, encompassing her. She feels salty tears threaten to overflow. Chris is laughing heartily, one small hand clenched over her stomach, her face turning a brilliant shade of red. Even innocent Sue Snell is giggling uncontrollably, her eyes flickering from person to person wildly.

"No," Carrie whispers, her eyes slamming shut to block out her classmates' manic expressions.

"No," she pleads, trying to force down the energy coursing through her veins, igniting her senses, overwhelming her mind.

"No," she says, louder, hoping someone will hear, hoping someone will stop this madness before it's too late, before the reigns of control slip from her grasp, before she opens her eyes and unleashes the fury building within her, before she punctures the glass and rains hell down on every man, woman, and child, before she hurts them all, before she _kills_ them all, before –

"_No_!" Carrie screams, and something inside her snaps.

The building sways in one long, languorous wave, and then the ceiling implodes, raining plaster and metal and wood down upon the visitors' heads. Women scream, covering themselves, as men dodge the larger chunks and try to find an escape, family in tow. Metal rods swing from the walls, crashing into vendors and gift shops and food courts. The floor shakes, making everyone's stomach roil nauseously. One woman pukes all over the floor, dry-heaving, pale hands gripping her blouse, while a young toddler attempts to pull his sister out from a pile of plaster. Havoc ensues as Miss Gardena begins shooing her students towards an exit.

But Carrie's not finished yet. Not by a long shot.

One of the haphazardly swinging metal rods soars over their heads and smashes into the glass barrier of the shark emporium. The solid crack of metal against thick glass reverberates down Carrie's spine, setting her nerve-endings on fire. She sees, out of the corner of her eye, Sue Snell watching the chaos unfold, wide-eyed and disbelieving. Her expression makes Carrie smile – it's so similar to the one her momma wears when she's done something "demon-like," and truth be told…she kind of enjoys it.

The shock and horror makes her feel deadly, like one of the sharks encased behind the glass.

A moment later, however, it is very clear that those sharks, along with the rest of the fish and sea anemones living within the tank, will no longer be trapped. Cracks spiral out from where the metal rod connected, and a deep groaning fills the room. The water pressure is pushing against the weakening glass barrier, and soon…

Well, soon it will be no more, and neither will they.

This thought propels Carrie into action. She staggers to her feet, still somewhat numb from the explosion of telekinetic power, and walks through the mass of people and debris over to a public bathroom. She feels like she's gliding along through a dense haze; nothing really seems real anymore. The power has overtaken her, and it's keeping her tightly in its grip. Carrie doesn't mind. She just wants revenge; she hopes Chris and Tina Hyena and all the others don't come out of this unscathed. They deserve it for being mean to her. They deserve it for calling her and her momma names.

But most of all, they deserve it for laughing.

Just as she gets to the bathroom and reaches out a hand to grasp the doorknob, everything goes silent. Her curiosity piqued by this sudden lack of movement and noise, Carrie turns around.

The people who have not yet escaped – about forty or fifty of them – look on with horror as the glass finally reaches its breaking point. The entire structure seems to shudder, and a moment later, water begins to gush from different spots along the wall. It comes out in short spouts and long-shooting streams, but it's clear that very soon – say, maybe thirty seconds from now, by Carrie's calculations – the wall will explode into miniscule shards of glass, and the thousands and thousands of gallons of sea water will rush in and drown them all. The creatures within the tank – specifically the sharks – are peering uncertainly in the direction of the glass. It's obvious that their interest has been piqued by the sound waves that have surely vibrated soundlessly through the water, indicating that something is amiss.

Carrie sucks in a deep breath, focusing briefly on the stricken expressions of her classmates – Chris Hargensen's leaves her especially delighted – before opening the bathroom door and closing it shut behind her, locking everyone else out and locking herself in.

A moment later, the crowd's hoarse screams are swallowed up as the glass wall explodes and the water gushes out and the sharks dismember people one by one by one. Water begins to leak beneath the door, writhing across the tiles towards Carrie, who has taken refuge in the farthest stall, her body crushed between the smelly toilet and the slick walls. She gasps for breath, although she's in no danger of drowning or suffocating from lack of oxygen.

She has only just realized what she's done. It sinks in like a ten thousand ton weight – Carrie has murdered people. Dozens of people, just because she was angry at Chris and her little taunts. Tears fall from her eyes in salty streams, and her chest starts to burn with an unbearable pain. Even as several sirens start up in the distance, even as cries of shock and screams for help sound outside the door, Carrie can only focus on the pain. Rocking back and forth, back and forth in a soothing rhythmic motion, she shuts her eyes and manages to clear her mind…with the exception of a single, monotonous thought.

_Momma can't find out_, she thinks over and over again. _Momma can't find out, she can't_, _oh, please, she can't_!

And even as the paramedics arrive on the scene and eventually bust down the bathroom door, Carrie thinks, _She won't find out what happened, she can't! She can't find out, I won't let her! Momma can't find out._

_Momma will be mad._

* * *

**What do you guys think? Please leave a comment or review, or whichever you would like, because this is my first fanfic outside of the Hunger Games and Vampire Diaries fandom. Let me know, loves~**


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